FARMER'S NOTEBOOK
Jackfruit offers vast potential for raising farm income
M.J.PRABU
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Value addition is important for the development of rural economy
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— Photo: K. Ananthan
Rising demand: Food processing will aid in generating employment in rural areas.
Value addition in agriculture is important for the development of rural economy.
“With farm lands shrinking fast in the name of industrialization, merely selling the raw harvested produce will not help the farmers.
They have to be innovative and think as to how they can survive the stiff competition,” says Dr. B. Ranganna, Head, Post Harvest Technology Centre, University of Agricultural Sciences, Gandhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra (GKVK), Bangalore.
Important areas
For a rural economy to prosper, farmers have to concentrate on two areas. The first is they have to take upon themselves the job of marketing their produce instead of depending on some unknown face to sell it and secondly they should convert their produce into some value added products to bring in some more money, according to him.
Food processing creates a number of employment opportunities for the local people as demand for raw materials is high. The local economy also remains within the village and therefore enhances the incomes of farmers and creates a surplus for export.
Value addition
The Post Harvest Technology Centre, conducted a study on the importance of value addition and how this technology can be effectively utilized by the farmers to enhance their income.
“Our research team listed out a number of crops and zeroed in on the humble jackfruit to try the value addition technology.
We selected the fruit because it is commonly found in all villages and homes. It is either grown in the backyard or as intercrop in coffee or tea estates.”
Immense scope
“We found that there is immense scope for product development from jackfruit and enhancing farm income through entrepreneurship and industrial exploitation of the fruit. This endeavour would also aid in generating employment in rural areas,” says Dr. Ranganna.
The processing of jackfruit will certainly serve as one of the sources towards sustaining farm income of jackfruit growers through enhancing their returns more compared to marketing of raw fruits. This would greatly benefit the rural economy, which is now being forced to become market-oriented.
Varied tastes
An attempt was made to utilise each and every part of jackfruit either for consumption or as nutri-rich animal feed. Accordingly, all constituents of jackfruit were explored to develop as many value added products as possible for the varied tastes of consumers.
The fruit constitutes three parts, namely, bulb, seed and rind. Bulbs constitute 29 per cent, seeds constitute 12 per cent and rind constitutes about 54 per cent of the ripe fruit.
In general, the fresh deseeded sweet bulbs are consumed and bulbs cannot be preserved for a long time because of their high perishable nature.
As a result there are huge post harvest losses (30 – 35 per cent) which occur during the season. Also, the importance of seeds and rind is not known to the growers/consumers. “Our research team has developed several value-added products from jackfruit bulbs, seeds as well as from the rind.
Various products
Fully ripened bulbs, the main edible part of the fruit, were used for preparation of products such as candy, finger chips, fruit bar, fruit leather, halwa, papad, ready-to-serve beverage, toffee, and milk based srikhand, ice cream and kulfi.
Half ripened bulbs can be processed into bulb powder and this is then utilized for preparation of traditional snacks such as pakoda, biscuits, and muffins.”
The recipes and preparation procedures of the above developed value added products have been standardized by our research team,” he explained.
The development of rural processing industry can turn the simple jackfruit tree into a commercial crop if jackfruit growers and entrepreneurs would take note of the immense potential the fruit offers and work towards exploiting this possibility for generating higher income.
For more information and training programmes readers can contact: The Research Engineer, Post Harvest Technology Centre University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore 560 065, e-mail: rangannab@gmail.com, phone: 080-23330153 extn 345.
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